Sideboard

This was the first strategy I attached myself to during testing for the Pro Tour because almost nothing could beat a resolved Aetherling. You might as well try to put it into play as quickly as possible. While this deck isn't a ramp deck, the allure of an earlier Aetherling does lead to me play cards like Rakdos Keyrune.

Think Twice isn't what I'd consider a card drawer necessarily. It's mostly there to make sure you get to use all your mana every turn and make your land drops. Patrick Chapin insisted that Desperate Ravings is better, but I'm skeptical. I've been known to Rave from time to time, but it's not right this time. When your deck is spending the entire game building to a certain card, there is no reason to risk discarding it.

Yes, there will be games where you are flooded or screwed and Desperate Ravings would be much better than Think Twice, but most of the time Think Twice will be enough. I'm not completely without graveyard interaction, but the risk of Ravings is not worth it when it could disrupt your entire game plan. If there were a single Unburial Rites in the deck, I'd probably be on board, but that mana base wouldn't be pretty.

I will be attending the StarCityGames.com Open Series in Baltimore in two weeks, and Grixis appears to be my frontrunner in Standard. There are some things that need tuning, such as the amount of early removal. I would prefer some more one-drops, and Tragic Slip seems pretty bad in a deck that can't expect to trigger morbid. Perhaps I have to go back to Dead Weight.

The countermagic suite is also up for questioning. I like having Syncopate as an early counterspell, but as Patrick Chapin pointed out to me, having a hard counter is pretty nice when you want to be spending all your mana on Olivia Voldaren or Aetherling. There could be more or less countermagic depending on what you expect to play against. Right now, I'm expecting the need for little countermagic.

Vampire Nighthawk and Evil Twin are two other options, specifically ones that Todd Anderson used in a Versus video this week. They both look nice but might be deceiving. You see, I think control decks need a brick wall against aggro decks; otherwise, they are pressured to kill every single creature their opponent plays.

Well, let me be the first to tell you that when they have twenty lands and 40 creatures ala Naya Blitz, that is rarely going to happen. Grixis doesn't have access to Supreme Verdict! That plan is ambitious at best. Vampire Nighthawk would be the perfect wall, but I have Izzet Staticaster instead. The mana base is geared more toward Izzet than Dimir, but that's mostly a preference. Early Pillar of Flames and using Olivia three times on turn 6 is the difference between winning and losing, but we could still reverse it. Nothing is set in stone.

Augur of Bolas is a fine man, but he's not a viable option in a deck with several creatures, lands, Keyrunes, and planeswalkers. There might be a different Far // Away deck with Augur of Bolas and Snapcaster Mage, perhaps straight Dimir Control, but abusing those interactions isn't what this deck is about.

All in all, I like the Grixis deck, and initial results have been good. I'll keep you guys updated on my progress.

Jund Varolz

It's a strange day when Brad Nelson plays Sphinx's Revelation in a Pro Tour and I play a midrange green deck. Some of the green cards are pretty sweet though!

At the PT, I played a G/B/W Varolz deck. That card always looked powerful, and I was not disappointed. Before the PT, I was brewing Varolz decks in various formats, and I've finally gotten the chance to work on one in Standard.

Spells (8)

Sideboard

Obviously, this deck starts with Varolz, the Scar-Striped; where would that bring you next? You should be looking for cheap, efficient things to scavenge with. In Standard, the best is probably Vexing Devil. While not a great card since giving your opponent the best option isn't a good strategy, it fits well into this deck—and not just because it's a single red mana to put four +1/+1 counters on one of your guys.

Lotleth Troll has obvious synergy with Varolz, as does Experiment One. The often-overlooked ability on Varolz is the ability to sacrifice things, which Sam Black has shown to be powerful. So we have one sacrifice outlet, but where do we go from there?

I borrowed some old technology and dusted off my Treacherous Pit-Dwellers. When it dies, you can sacrifice it before they gain control of it. Deathrite Shaman can also exile it before undying resolves, so you have plenty of ways to remove the downside. Of course, there are games where you basically have to cast Treacherous Pit-Dweller and hope they have nothing, but we can't have everything. If nothing else, it's another powerful creature to scavenge.

Faithless Looting rounds out the deck. It's not flashy, but it puts big guys in your graveyard to scavenge, digs you out of mana screw or mana flood, and generally fixes your draws. I wouldn't advise running the card disadvantage of Faithless Looting in a normal deck, but this deck has enough graveyard interaction that it works well.

Skirsdag High Priest is another card that takes advantage of the deck's engine and is probably good enough to maindeck. It would help in the games where your draw consists of Experiment Ones and Bloodthrone Vampires, which is certainly a risk when you play a deck based off synergy and not raw power.

As more cards become legal in a format, decks start looking a lot better. There are fewer holes on curves, and most decks have answers to whatever ails them. In this case, Skirsdag High Priest has gotten a lot better since it's easier to curve out with it and trigger it. There are enough creature generators and sacrifice outlets that it being a two-drop that taps to make Demons isn't out of the ordinary.

There are a lot of ways to build decks around certain fringe cards, so you should be looking to take advantage of that. Admittedly, the G/W/B Aristocrats deck is better at using Varolz in combination with Skirsdag High Priest due to Doomed Traveler and Lingering Souls, but it's still a nice fit in Jund.

Against control decks, I like Duress and another Falkenrath Aristocrat. You should be able to go toe to toe with their removal, but I'd be wary of their finishers. Outlasting them is a possibility, but be aware that the pacing of the game can quickly turn once they slam Aetherling.

Mono-Red Blitz

The first thing we did in our Block Constructed Mono-Red Aggro decks was cut the Boros Reckoners and shave a land. Some people have had success with that type of strategy on Magic Online, but I don't think they've taken it far enough.

Lands (18)

Spells (8)

Sideboard

Boros Reckoner is obviously a good card, but it doesn't work well with the rest of the deck. You can build Mono-Red a little more on the midrange side ala Tomoharu Saito, but in Standard right now your best bet is trying to kill them as soon as possible. Most decks won't be able to put up enough resistance against you game 1, and then you can rely on your sideboard to fix your issues.

From testing Block Constructed, I can safely say this archetype has legs in Standard. Our Block deck could beat most Standard decks. They key is finding the right mix of solid threats and ways to push them through. Maybe maindeck Volcanic Strength is what I'm looking for.

Searing Spear might not be the right card. Preferably, the spell in that slot would be one mana, but there is the occasional Vampire Nighthawk you need to kill. I want all my spells to be cheap. I want to do what Naya Blitz is doing but much, much better and much more consistently.

I dunno. I can pick up on where there's potential for abuse, such as the above red deck in game 1s, but figuring out how to attack people from a different angle post-board is difficult. I'll be working on it.

Hopefully, one of these decks will end up being good enough for me to take to the StarCityGames.com Standard Open in Baltimore.

About Gerry Thompson

After a brief stint interning for Wizards of the Coast, GerryT has returned to the tournament scene. Well known for his deck tuning abilities, he has nine Grand Prix Top 8s, including wins in Denver and Nashville. He made Top 8 of Pro Tour Gatecrash and six SCG Invitationals, with wins in Richmond and Atlanta.